Dhe SV Darmstadt 98 has secured the top spot in the 2nd Bundesliga. Lilien, who have been unbeaten for eleven games, turned a deficit into a 2-1 (0-1) win at Karlsruher SC on Saturday. Phillip Tietz scored the winning goal for Darmstadt in the 88th minute, replacing Hamburger SV in first place. HSV lost 3-0 in the city derby at FC St. Pauli on Friday evening.
In front of 19,391 spectators, KSC was the better team for much of the first half and took the lead after a precise free-kick from Philip Heise. The in-form Fabian Schleusener (19th minute) headed into the bottom left corner for his fifth goal of the season. Less than ten minutes later, not much was missing and the Badeners of coach Christian Eichner would have been even clearer in front. Christoph Zimmermann cleared Malik Batmaz’ shot for the guests on the line (27′).
Darmstadt tried to put pressure on just before half-time, but without creating top chances. That changed shortly after the break: central defender Patric Pfeiffer equalized with a header from a corner by Tobias Kempe (49′). Coach Torsten Lieberknecht made the change at half-time, his team played more aggressively and initially posed problems for the Karlsruhe team. Another Pfeiffer goal was disallowed because of a handball after video evidence (64′). Tietz then let the Darmstadt team cheer.
First Fortuna home defeat under Thioune
Meanwhile, Fortuna Düsseldorf is losing touch with the promotion places. On Saturday, coach Daniel Thioune’s team, which was still weak, lost 1-0 (0-0) against 1. FC Nürnberg. It was the first win for the Franconians in the second game under new coach Markus Weinzierl. The winning goal was scored by Kwado Duah (47th minute) in front of 25,750 spectators shortly after the break.
The Düsseldorfers, who had already lost 1-0 at Darmstadt 98 last week, didn’t get enough of the 90 minutes to prevent Thioune’s first home defeat. With 17 points from twelve games, Fortuna is at least five points behind the relegation rank.
A good phase for the Franks shortly before and after the change of sides was enough to defeat the ambitious Rhinelanders. Above all, offensively, the Fortuna was far too harmless. The Düsseldorf team had suffered their last home defeat in January and also lost 1-0 to Nuremberg at the time.
Magdeburg is slipping
After another defeat, 1. FC Magdeburg slipped to the penultimate place in the table. The team from Elbestadt lost 2-0 (0-0) to Eintracht Braunschweig through an own goal by Amara Condé, who had just come on as a substitute (51st), and a goal from Bryan Henning (90+5th).
In the well-filled Magdeburg stadium with 25,601 spectators, the spectators saw an intense game from the start in which FCM did not deviate from their playful approach despite numerous changes. However, Magdeburg rarely got the desired wing play against Eintracht’s defensive five-man chain.
After 25 minutes, the guests became more active, Magdeburg now had a lot to do defensively and Eintracht set some standards. After a corner, Filip Benkovic (30th) hit the crossbar of the Magdeburg goal. The FCM rarely managed to pull the Braunschweig defense apart and thus found no space for its attacking game. Because the switching game was usually too imprecise, the hosts didn’t score at all in the first half. After the break, a Braunschweig counterattack (51′) gave the visitors the lead: Pherai was released well and Condé’s rescue attempt ended in his own net. Magdeburg threw everything forward again, Henning’s goal provided clarity.
